Personal Leadership

When I was younger I held this notion that our leaders held the positions they did to ensure the well-being and best interests of those they served. I trusted that their behaviours would exemplify what the rest of us ought to aspire to, and their decisions would be made thoughtfully and therefore would benefit the greatest number of people possible.

Well... I’m older now and I am reminded continuously how naïve I have been. Thankfully I have been able to retain some of that naivety - and because of that naivety, I remain hopeful. 

I remain hopeful that the pendulum will swing back to decency. Perhaps the behaviours of our leaders, in whatever capacity they serve, will in the future model tolerance, acceptance and compassion. Maybe there is hope that individuals will seek positions of leadership not just to gain and retain power. Maybe, just maybe, leaders will make it their mission to unite and not divide.

And maybe a system will be in place that will support our leaders and make leadership positions attractive to those that have the intelligence and skills to achieve great things for the common good. And maybe we can find a way to buffer extreme views and behaviours and facilitate the creation of common goals that serve the interests of the majority of people. 

As things stand right now, our best and brightest avoid leadership as they do not want to subject their loved ones to the harassment, threats and abuses that inherently come with the position.

So what role do all of us play in getting to a “better place” for our leaders?

How do we help them Rise Above our current conditions and expectations?

It starts with the realization that we are all leaders, and it is incumbent on us to develop our own personal leadership skills so we can demonstrate what is required to those that will succeed us. You read that correctly: WE ARE ALL LEADERS.

If you have ever had to decide for yourself: when to get up, what to wear, what to eat – you are making personal leadership decisions for yourself.

If you are a parent: you are a leader in your household and with every action you take, every decision you make, how you respond to any situation – you are being watched closely, and your actions will be followed far more that any of your words will be.

If you work in customer service: every time you interact with a customer you are in a leadership position.

It goes on and on. You... are a leader. And – you can be a better leader than you are now if you choose to.

If you were to carefully dissect your own personal leadership objectively you would have a better understanding of how you perform in critical areas where effective leaders possess key attributes. Things like self-awareness, understanding others and empathy, perseverance,  succession planning, building peoples resilience, being steadfastly objective, continuously improving, and finally – knowing when to leave your position and support those that follow you.

If we all learn to be better leaders and can then model the behaviours and attributes that we wish all of our leaders possessed, over time our world could rise above our current state of affairs. Can you picture a world where political leaders speak positively about what they can do, as opposed to trying to negatively destroy their opponents? Where opposing parties are viewed as worthy adversaries instead of evil liars? Bringing people together instead of driving them apart seems like a better place to live.

With that all being said, who is it incumbent upon to thoughtfully and progressively develop the future leaders we desire?

You.

And me. And everyone else we know.

This concept of the “average” citizen being important to our society is nothing new. In his address to the Sobornne in Paris, France on April 23rd, 1910 former US President Theodore Roosevelt stated:

“With you here, and with us in my own home, in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional cries which call for heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves us to do our best to see that the standard of the average citizen is kept high; and the average cannot be kept high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher.”

The above excerpt is from the same address that Roosevelt’s famous “The Man In The Arena” speech was taken from.  

With the right knowledge and some serious self-reflection, we can thoughtfully demonstrate the personal leadership attributes we value for those who are watching us. We can guide those who follow us in how to lead responsibly and to choose to lead for the right reasons, not simply in order to gain and maintain power.

In the world of politics, in time we will have enough quality candidates who lead and conduct themselves with the grace and class that we believe they should, and we can choose the leaders we want to represent our beliefs as opposed to be forced into choosing from a field of people we feel do not represent our beliefs at all.

Leadership matters.

We are all leaders.

How will you choose to lead?